In a stunning interview with lead game developer and self-styled supreme genius, CCP Sledgehammer has finally revealed that a recent string of unwarranted player relocations is in fact a feature of the new Triglavian Invasion content, and not an unintentional bug.
Over the last two weeks, reports have come in from pilots having logged off one day and logged in the next day in a completely new system—one invaded by Triglavians. At first these incidents seemed rare and random, with the individual pilots submitting bug report tickets. Those tickets went unanswered though, and the wider Eve community began to get suspicious. “At first it was just the null blocs.” said one of the affected pilots. “And then it was me and a friend pulled from a wormhole. We’d logged off the night before while camping some mining Procurers and the next morning after down time we were in Raravoss!” The pilot was sadly not alone. Eve Onion investigators have confirmed that at on two separate occasions, an entire fleet of Goonswarm Federation Jackdaws—who’d logged off as part of a “tactical disengagement” in space—logged back in after only a few minutes to find themselves relocated once to Raravoss and once to Vale. To find out just what was going on, Eve Onion turned to the one man who could shed light on this strange situation: CCP Sledgehammer.
Were you aware of what was happening?
“Of course, I knew what was happening!” exclaimed Sledgehammer, “It was part of the invasion mechanic from the very beginning.” He smiled manically, left hand stroking his domestic short-haired European and continued, “Marble and I thought it would be necessary to start the relocation efforts from day one in fact; others asked us to wait for a few days before pushing this button, to see if the content was popular enough without it. As you can see, I was right all along.” At this, a low rumble emanated from the diminutive furry head in his lap. “WE were right, I meant to say” Sledgehammer corrected, briefly glancing to Marble.
Why would such a mechanic be necessary?
“We have to encourage people to use our new content somehow!” explained Sledgehammer. “Frankly speaking, it took years to get enough people into the Abyss on a regular basis to justify THAT development expense. We almost lost the entire dev team for that one! Can you imagine the consequences if we had let this massively hyped ‘Invasion’ naturally play out? Let’s just say there’s a reason the word ‘extirpation’ is used so much by the Triglavians.”
What can players expect in the future, regarding this feature?
“If I were to give any advice to players who were blessed with mandatory participation, it would be this; Eve is hard, get over it” dismissed Sledgehammer.
Do you plan on making future events mandatory?
“That depends on several factors”, he replied in contemplation. “If the players participate on their own, then there’s no need for us to do anything; after all this button is not going away any time soon. At the same time, if we can finally succeed in our efforts to make another passable MMO, then the jackboot of foreign investment might relax enough to let us breathe freely again. At which time, we won’t worry so much about justifying failed content implementations and Eve can go back to easy mode for those who like to mindlessly play the same old thing every day.”
Can we expect other unexpected features to emerge during this invasion event?
“Uh, well uh, I couldn’t hear your question” responded Sledgehammer, becoming visibly agitated and glancing several times at the cameras surrounding his office. “Thank you for your questions.” At this, our interview concluded.
While these were incredibly candid and open responses for an employee of CCP Games, we at Eve Onion expect nothing less from such a supreme genius as CCP Sledgehammer.
Eve Onion will continue to monitor the situation and report on any additional, new, and exciting features to emerge from this invasion!
